Recent Updates
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SEC paying $755K to settle with fired lawyer
Lawyer Blogs 06/30/2010The Securities and Exchange Commission is paying $755,000 to settle a lawsuit with a former staff lawyer who accused the agency of blocking his investigation of a prominent hedge fund.The SEC settlement of Gary Aguirre's wrongful termination claim re...
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Kagan on guns: Court precedents are 'settled law'
Lawyer Blogs 06/29/2010Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan says she considers recent high court decisions expanding gun rights to be "settled law."Kagan was asked at her confirmation hearing about two recent decisions, including a 5-4 ruling Monday, which essentially guarant...
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US top court extends gun rights to states, cities
Lawyer Blogs 06/28/2010The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday extended gun rights to every state and city in the nation in a ruling involving Chicago's 28-year-old handgun ban.By a 5-4 vote and splitting along conservative and liberal lines, the nation's highest court extended i...
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Kilpatrick lawyer: He'll battle this indictment
Lawyer Blogs 06/25/2010A lawyer for Kwame Kilpatrick said Thursday that the ex-Detroit mayor would fight Wednesday's indictment."Mr. Kilpatrick will vigorously defend these allegations," Farmington Hills attorney Arnold Reed said at a news conference. He said an indictment...
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High court sides with ex-Enron CEO Skilling
Lawyer Blogs 06/24/2010The Supreme Court has sided with former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling in limiting the use of a federal fraud law that has been a favorite of white-collar crime prosecutors.The court said Thursday that the "honest services" law could not be used in convi...
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2nd Mass. man to change plea in black church arson
Lawyer Blogs 06/22/2010A second man is expected to change his not-guilty plea in the arson fire that destroyed a predominantly black Massachusetts church hours after Barack Obama was elected president.Thomas Gleason Jr. has a change-of-plea hearing scheduled Tuesday in U.S...
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Judge: Slaughterhouse manager will get 27 years
Lawyer Blogs 06/22/2010A former vice president of an Iowa kosher slaughterhouse will be sentenced to 27 years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $27 million restitution for his conviction on financial fraud charges, a federal judge said Monday.Chief U.S. District Court Ju...
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High court upholds anti-terror law
Lawyer Blogs 06/21/2010The Supreme Court has upheld a federal law that bars "material support" to foreign terrorist organizations, rejecting a free speech challenge from humanitarian aid groups.The court ruled 6-3 Monday that the government may prohibit all forms of aid to...
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Pa. ex-lawmaker to be sentenced in corruption case
Lawyer Blogs 06/18/2010A central figure in Pennsylvania's legislative corruption case — former lawmaker Mike Veon — is scheduled for sentencing in Harrisburg.The former state House Democratic whip is to appear Friday before Dauphin Court Judge Richard Lewis.Veon stands con...
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US court tosses protester's arrest at Liberty Bell
Lawyer Blogs 06/17/2010An anti-abortion protester arrested in 2007 had a First Amendment right to demonstrate on a sidewalk near the entrance the building that houses the Liberty Bell, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.The decision overturns lower-court rulings that ...
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BP agrees to $20B fund for spill victims
Lawyer Blogs 06/16/2010President Barack Obama met on his own turf with top BP officials on Wednesday to press his demands that the London-based oil giant pay into a claims fund for victims of the worst oil spill in the nation's history.BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg, CEO...
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Utah man facing firing squad seeks federal stay
Lawyer Blogs 06/15/2010A death row inmate set to be executed by firing squad Friday is scrambling to block his execution after losing an appeal at the Utah Supreme Court and failing to persuade the state parole board to grant him clemency.Ronnie Lee Gardner's attorneys are...